BZB no. 30 - With or without Union. Polish environmental NGOs'attitude towards European integration
The European Council at Copenhagen in June 1993 agreed that the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) may become members of the Union. At the same time it stated that enlargement will take place as soon as the countries are able to fulfil the economic and political obligations of membership. On the basis of an evaluation of the associated countries, the European Commission recommended that accession negotiations should start with Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia (EC 1997a).
The European Commission has stated that the environment is a priority for bilateral co-operation with acceding countries, as well as an important area for approximation of the EU legislation. According to the Commission, the Community's priorities in the field of environmental policy include integration of environmental protection into EU sectoral policy, preventive action, the polluter pays principle, fighting environmental damage at source, cleaner production and shared responsibility. Acceding countries are expected to follow these rules and their development policy should incorporate the principle of sustainable development (EC 1997a).
These declarations cannot always be taken for granted. One of the reasons is that not the environmental but the economic benefits from enlargement are often put at the forefront of discussion. The environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) from the EU countries as well as from Poland often raise the concern that if the principles of sustainable development are in contradiction to economic growth, they will be simply overlooked in the process of accession.
Many Polish ENGOs are currently in the process of defining their attitudes towards Polish accession to the EU. Its positive aspects should be taken into consideration, however, presentation of its disadvantages may play an important role in influencing the process of Polish negotiations and harmonisation with the EU. The goal of this research is to present the state of knowledge and the attitude of Polish NGOs towards the EU and compare them with the experience of these European NGOs which are strongly engaged in the debate on the European integration, and to find answers to such questions as:
The first part of the dissertation is devoted to a literature review, presenting such issues as EU history and policy, the attitude of ENGOs in Western countries towards European integration, pointing out the present state of Polish harmonisation process in the environmental protection and presentation of the structure, history and role of Polish NGOs. The second part is based on the results of a survey conducted among Polish non-governmental organisations. The last part is an attempt to present the Polish NGOs visions of an integrated Europe, based on the results of the research and its comparison with the Western NGOs' ideas and pointing out the main concerns of both groups, which should be taken into account by policy makers involved in the process of EU enlargement.